Walking rail assemblies have been used by individuals with lower extremity physical disability to provide support through the upper extremities to practice walking, regain balance, and build strength. The inventors recognized that many persons who could benefit from these devices can only use them in a physical therapy gym or rehabilitation hospital. This limitation is due to the size, weight and lack of ability to disassemble and re-assemble currently available products in any reasonable way.
There exists in today's market parallel bar assemblies that may be collapsed in place, but they do not achieve ease of assembly, disassembly and/or transportability. These devices operate to minimize their footprint when not in use. However, they still can be difficult to transport, use in various locations, and store. Most of the current devices of this type are indeed fixed in one location even if they can be folded or collapsed for the purpose of opening up floor space for other purposes as needed.
Other parties have described foldable parallel bars, but none of them include the advantages of the present system. The embodiments described herein include a base support with a surface of sufficiently low build height to allow ease of walking over the support for persons with physical disability who are primary users of the apparatus. Another improvement is a collapsible horizontal support rail, which minimizes significantly the space required for storage or transport of the 8′ or 10′ rails when disassembled and collapsed telescopically to achieve reduced length.